


Pack Laws and Tribal Codes

by lit_chick08



Series: Ain't Misbehavin' 'Verse [2]
Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Multi, Sibling Incest, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-06
Updated: 2011-12-06
Packaged: 2017-10-27 00:14:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/289442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lit_chick08/pseuds/lit_chick08
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For 1,000 years, they balanced on the fine line between love and hate.  But no matter what happens, no matter who they become, brothers and sisters are forever.  No one knows this better than Elijah, Lexi, Klaus, and Rebekah</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pack Laws and Tribal Codes

He was the first, the eldest son; Elijah took his responsibility as the bearer of his family's legacy quite seriously, even as a child. Before the others came, he remembered his father holding up as they stood upon one of the balconies, his father waving to the lands sprawling in every direction, and telling him how one day everything would belong to Elijah.

Elijah, the first of five sons, the protector of two daughters, the boy whose name meant “My god is the lord.”

The irony of being named after a prophet and damned to be a monster is not lost on him.

* * *

She was the fifth, the eldest daughter; Alexandra did not particularly enjoy having four older brothers but she certainly enjoyed being the only girl. Unlike the others, she was not graced with time alone in the nursery, not with another brother following eleven months after her birth, but it did not matter because she adored her baby brother with every ounce of her being, loved him more than she loved the four boys who came before her.

Alexandra, the first of two daughters, the envy of four brothers, the girl whose name meant “defender of men.”

The irony of being named as a protector when she could end a life with the wave of her hand is not lost on her.

* * *

He was the sixth, the final son; Niklaus knew from the beginning his presence was not as appreciated by his father as his brothers' but his mother always favored him. While Elijah and the others did everything they could to earn Father's favor, Niklaus was content to remain in the nursery with Alexandra, to run through the gardens with his sister and eschew all sense of responsibility their father tried to beat into him.

Niklaus, the last of six sons, the frustration of four brothers, the boy whose name meant “victory of the people.”

The irony of being named after the success of a race he seeks to destroy is not lost on him.

* * *

She was the seventh, the second daughter; Rebekah did not enjoy being the youngest, being the smallest and the weakest. Her four oldest brothers were too old for her to truly enjoy, Alexandra and Niklaus never acknowledged her, and Rebekah longed for the days when she would be old enough to enjoy life, to _have_ a life.

Rebekah, the last of two daughters, the forgotten child, the girl whose name meant “to tie.”

The irony of being named after the action which has cursed her is not lost on her.

* * *

When Elijah got married, Rebekah was five-years-old. As he gathered his things which would be moved to the home he would be sharing with his new wife, Elijah caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Standing in his doorway was Rebekah, her tiny face folded in consternation.

“I thought we agreed you were not to enter my rooms,” he teased, smiling so she would understand he was not chastising her.

“I am _outside_ your rooms,” she corrected, playing with the fabric of her skirts.

Elijah felt his smile turn into a grin at his sister's attitude. “Yes, I suppose you are. Well, come in. You know how Mother hates for you to linger.”

Rebekah immediately complied, heaving her body up onto his mattress. When he reached to help her, she smacked at his hands, declaring, “I can do it! I am not a baby!” and Elijah felt his heart flutter in sadness as he realized the statement was correct.

After situating herself on his blankets, Rebekah stated matter-of-factly, “I do not want you to get married.”

“Why? Do you not care for Naomi?”

“No, I like Naomi, but I do not want you to move away. No one is as kind to me as you are, and who will help me when Nik hits me?”

“I shall have Joshua promise to stop Niklaus from being unkind.”

“Joshua is stupid and does not like me.”

“Joshua is your brother and he loves you,” Elijah argued, tapping her nose with his finger.

“Not the way _you_ love me.” Rising up on her knees, her big blue eyes trapping him effortlessly, Rebekah plead, “Will you take me with you? I shall be very good and I will not bother you.”

“Bex...”

“Please, Eli, please!”

“You would miss Mother far too much,” he pointed out reasonably, “and there would be no other children for you to play with at my home. It will be fine, Rebekah, I swear it.”

Folding her arms across her chest, tears swimming in her eyes, his cherubic faced sister spat, “I hate you! I hate you and I shall never forgive you!”

Elijah caught her easily as she tried to leap from the bed; as she squirmed to escape from his grasp, he stated emphatically, “And that breaks my heart, my dear, because I love you more than there are stars in the sky, and I shall miss you most of all.”

Fat tears rolling down her cheeks, Rebekah sniffled pathetically. “Really?”

“Really and truly. _You_ , Rebekah, are my most favorite sister, and I am deeply sad that I will not be able to see your smiling face every day.”

It was not a lie; Rebekah absolutely was his favorite sister, his favorite _sibling_. There was a purity and a lightness to her the rest of them lacked.

When Elijah thinks of her now, he tries to remember the little girl rather than the woman she became.

* * *

When Alexandra fully understood what it meant for Niklaus to not be their father's son, she was fourteen. She was being fitted for her wedding gown when the sound of shattering glass and heavy furniture being knocked to the ground reached her. Despite her mother ordering her to remain on the seamstress's pedestal, Alexandra ran towards the commotion, pins in her skirt, her underclothing and stays on display. When she reached the parlor, Niklaus was on the ground, bruised and bleeding, their father pounding upon him with heavy fists, and Alexandra did not hesitate to throw her body atop Niklaus's, catching the tail end of a blow which made her back explode in pain.

Her cry had the simultaneous effect of making her father back away and Niklaus attempt to rear up beneath her to attack, but Alexandra kept her weight upon him, wrapping her arms so tightly around his torso, there was nowhere for him to go. Niklaus was already larger than she was, but he was weakened, every visible inch of his skin blemished by their father's rage.

“Alexandra, get away from him,” her father ordered, his breathing ragged from exertion.

She shook her head, glaring hatefully at both of her parents. “If you want him, you will have to go through me.”

Alexandra does not kid herself into believing she was remotely intimidating, but there must have been something in her voice which made her father understand how serious she was. There were few absolutes in the world, but Alexandra knew her father would never intentionally strike her; it was not his way, not with her, not with any of them except Niklaus.

“Get that mongrel out of my sight,” her father finally ordered, literally throwing up his hands. “I am done with him.”

When her father finally left the room, Alexandra slid off of Niklaus, tears welling in her eyes as she saw the blood on his face. As she attempted to help him to his feet, their mother came up behind her, bending to help as well; Alexandra reacted purely on instinct, slapping her hand away, glaring with more fury than she had ever felt in her life.

“You _let_ him treat Nik this way,” Alexandra growled as Esther recoiled. “You are no better than him!”

It took her twice as long to get Niklaus to his chambers without her mother's assistance, but Alexandra did not care about that, did not care about the smudges of dirt and blood on her new skirt, did not care about anything but making sure Niklaus was safe. She ordered a servant to draw him a bath, helped him out of his soiled clothing despite the fact they are both too old for that now; Niklaus winced as she attended to his cuts and Alexandra shushed him, blowing streams of air onto the wounds to take the sting away.

He cried out in pain as he slid into the hot water, and Alexandra felt her heart clench in empathy; Nik's pain had always been her own and vice versa. As she wet a cloth, carefully trying to rinse the pain of the day away, Niklaus leaned his head against the side of the tub, one hand clumsily catching the material of her skirt.

“I ruined your dress.”

Stroking curls back from his forehead, she shook her head, waving her hand dismissively. “It is for the better. It is a horrid gown. I would rather marry nude than in the monstrosity Mother is commissioning.”

“I would rather you not marry.”

“I would prefer that as well, but we both know that is not an option.” Stroking the bruised skin of his cheekbone with her thumb, Alexandra confessed, “I have never slept without you in the next room. I fear I will never rest once I am away.”

“We could run,” he suggested, hissing sharply as the rag slid across the already blackening skin over his ribs. “We could steal horses from the stables and ride until we are in a new country. We can be Nik and Lex, adventurers.”

Alexandra smiled sadly, a stray tear rolling down her cheek. “Just like when we were children.”

As the water began to cool, Niklaus struggled to his feet, bracing himself against the sides of the tub while Alexandra wrapped his body in a sheet. She had just secured the cloth around him when Niklaus suddenly grasped her hands, startling her.

“He will kill me once you are gone. You cannot leave me, Lex, you cannot.”

“He won't,” Alexandra swore.

“And how do you know that?”

“Because he knows I would kill him first.” Holding Niklaus's face in her hands, she stated, “As long as I have breath in my chest, no one will ever hurt you.”

When Alexandra thinks of him now, she tries to remember the scared boy in need of her protection rather than the man who promised to destroy her.

* * *

The day Alexandra got married, Niklaus had just turned fourteen. As soon as the ceremony was over, the moment everyone sat down for dinner, he grabbed a bottle of wine and headed out into the frozen gardens, the biting winter winds cutting him to the quick. He settled in on a bench, chugging from the bottle to warm himself, letting his tears freeze on his face.

Niklaus wasn't sure how long he sat in the gardens before Elijah found him; all he knew was one moment he was watching his breath escape towards the sky and the next Elijah was there, his face folded in irritation.

“What are you doing? You'll catch your death out here, especially without a cloak.”

“I could not be so lucky,” Niklaus spat, draining the jug of the last of its wine before throwing it as far as his frozen muscles would allow.

“Niklaus, what - “

“Leave me be, Elijah! What I do is none of your concern!”

Exhaling as he sat down beside his younger brother, Elijah declared, “As long as our blood matches, whatever you do will be my concern.”

Niklaus scoffed. “We both know our blood does not match, that I am not Michael's son.”

“Having different fathers does not mean we are not still brothers. It does not mean I cannot see what pain you are in at having to say goodbye to Alexandra.”

Niklaus wiped at his face, his anger rising in his chest. “She does not even love him.”

“She will learn to.”

Whirling on Elijah, murder in his heart, he growled, “And that is what you want for our sisters, to be traded away like cattle to further our father's wealth?”

“It is the way the world works, Niklaus.”

Getting to his feet, his balance unsteady from the alcohol, he vowed, “I will burn the world before I ever play by those rules.”

Rising, steadying Niklaus with a hand on his shoulder, Elijah pronounced, “If you find a way to change the rules, I will help you start the fire.”

When Niklaus thinks of him now, he tries to remember the brother who promised to help him obliterate the status quo rather than the man who attempted to rip his heart from his chest.

* * *

When the curse was laid upon them, Rebekah was seventeen. She had no idea what was transpiring mere miles from her house; no, the night her humanity was stripped away, Rebekah was fast asleep. Sometimes she wondered how she would have spent her last day if she had known she would never be human again; she had never realized how valuable humanity was until it was taken away.

Rebekah awoke to crippling pain, unable to draw a full breath, an unseen force dragging her towards the door. As she gasped and twisted, grabbing furniture to try to anchor herself, Rebekah saw her parents fighting the same losing battle as herself. It was not until her bare feet touched the cool grass Rebekah was able to breathe, gratefully gasping in all of the oxygen she could.

“Rebekah,” she heard her mother gasp, laying a hand upon her shoulder. Rebekah looked up and immediately screamed as she saw her mother's monstrous face, a face which matched her father's; Rebekah's hands flew immediately to her own face, and she could feel the differences, hissed sharply as she knicked her fingers upon the fangs now in her mouth.

“Mama, what's happening?” she cried, suddenly feeling so much younger than she was.

It was the overwhelming scent of fire which drew her attention; as she looked out towards the road, she could glimpse smoke rising in the distance, could almost _feel_ the heat licking at her skin. For the rest of her life, Rebekah would not know why she did what she did; all she could think was _That's Charlotte's house_ and then she was running.

She flew over the landscape, her parents' shouts in her ears, rocks and sticks tearing the tender flesh of her feet. As she reached the clearing where the Petrova farm sat, Rebekah's eyes burned at the brightness of the three burning fires; she could smell a strange mixture of herbs beneath the scent of the burning wood, and, as she scanned the area, she saw Charlotte, bound to a stake inside a ring of fire, a knife buried deeply in her stomach. The scent of the blood forced Rebekah's face to change, and rage she had never felt before filled her body; Rebekah heard someone shout out a warning as to her arrival, but she was already moving, already tearing open bodies as she fought to reach Charlotte.

She leapt over the flames, landing in front of Charlotte, shredding the ropes which held her in place, jerking the blade from her gut; an almost overpowering urge to lower her mouth to the wound nearly crippled Rebekah, but she fought through it, trying to rouse Charlotte.

“I'm so sorry,” Charlotte whispered as Rebekah clasped her hand.

“Do not speak. I will get you to Isaac; he will know how to heal - “

Charlotte coughed, blood trickling from her lips. With a shaky hand, she tugged at the necklace around her throat, pressing it into Rebekah's palm. “My daughter...She will need that. Promise...you will keep it safe.”

“I promise,” Rebekah assured her through her tears.

And then Charlotte was gone, and all she could think of was Niklaus and what these people might have done with her brother. As she got to her feet, an arrow hit her squarely in the shoulder, making her scream in pain, and Rebekah wondered if she was going to die alongside her sister-in-law beneath the light of the full moon.

She heard the screams, the cracking of bones, and then there was Alexandra, face bloodied, her fists coated in gore. Rebekah felt the warmth of the fluid on her skin as Alexandra grabbed her and pulled, forcing her to run. They did not stop until they were at the edge of the river where Alexandra carefully broke off the tip of the arrow, slipping the wood from her body.

“What is happening?” Rebekah asked pathetically as Alexandra cupped her hands to gather water to cleanse the wound.

“I do not know,” Alexandra admitted, “but we have to look after each other now.”

When she thinks about her now, Rebekah tries to remember the sister who made her feel so safe on the water's edge rather than the woman who left her to bear the brunt of their brother's anger.

* * *

The night their father ordered all of them to pick a side, to decide whether they supported Niklaus's quest for the doppelganger or a life of peace with him, Elijah felt his heart break. Unlike Niklaus, Elijah loved his father; he respected him, had tried so hard to make him proud, done whatever it took to emulate him. As Niklaus glared at the man who raised them, Elijah saw the panic in his mother's eyes, in his siblings' eyes; none of them wanted this.

The moment Michael said choose, Alexandra went to Niklaus's side, no hesitation in her movement. Elijah saw his mother flinch as their father intoned, “If you go with him, Alexandra, you cannot come back.”

“I understand,” Alexandra replied, and there was such _certainty_ in her voice, Elijah wondered, not for the first time, if she was the strongest of all of them.

Niklaus looked so young as he silently implored them to stand alongside them, to disobey their father for the first time in their unnaturally long lives and support his quest to avenge Charlotte, to become something which could make the witches pay. And Elijah knew his anger and hatred would drive Niklaus to do terrible things, to make unsafe choices and drag Alexandra into wars he would start with little cause. He was their big brother; it was his job to protect them.

Elijah tried not to show his grief as he walked to Niklaus's side, suppressing a wince at the way his mother gasped his name. Michael looked as if someone had hit him upside the head, so obviously shocked and horrified, and Elijah wanted to apologize, to explain why he was walking away from the life he wanted to live in order to support a cause he didn't believe in at all.

The absolute gratitude on Niklaus's face made it worse.

“Do you understand what you are doing, Elijah?” Michael asked, his tone rigid.

“I do,” Elijah confirmed, trying to silently communicate the reasons behind his choices, begging his father to forgive him for this.

When Rebekah suddenly ran to him, slipping her hand into his, Elijah wanted to send her back, to order her to stay with their mother and their brothers, the people who had spent their lives doing everything they could to protect her. From the moment they were cursed, everyone tried to make it better for Bex, to help her come to terms with being permanently stuck on the cusp of womanhood, to help her forget the sight of Charlotte bleeding to death; though he never explicitly stated it, Elijah knew Niklaus blamed Rebekah for not reaching Charlotte sooner, for not preventing what Niklaus had been too far away to stop.

Swearing her allegiance to Niklaus was the same as tying herself to a lifetime of misery, but Elijah knew Rebekah had always looked to him to keep her safe.

They ran until they reached a different continent, until they were as far from their family as they could possibly get without a ship. As Niklaus and Alexandra hunted, Elijah watched Rebekah wander around the house whose owner they had compelled to invite them inside before killing. He saw the tremor in her hands as she touched the trappings of a human life Niklaus easily snuffed out.

“What have we done?” Rebekah whispered as her finger traced the opening of a vase.

“Bex...”

She turned to face him, her eyes wide with fear, the moonlight washing out her face of any warmth; Elijah could not remember her ever looking so _young_.

“Father is going to kill us if Niklaus doesn't do it first - “

Elijah hurried across the room, pressing his fingers against her mouth. Keeping his voice incredibly low, he ordered, “You can never say that again, do you understand me? If Nik ever hears you...”

“I'm scared,” she confessed, tears filling her eyes.

Cradling her face in his palms, Elijah swore, “As long as I live, I will protect you. You have my word.”

When Elijah thinks about all the people he has failed and all the promises he has broken, it is the one he made to Rebekah on that cool spring night which haunts him.

* * *

The night everything changed with Niklaus, all Alexandra had been trying to do was make him smile. They were in Romania, a century after leaving their family, and Niklaus grew darker with every passing year. Alexandra saw it building inside of him, the rage, the hatred, the frustration; she worried constantly Niklaus was going to do something to end his life, and, despite what Elijah and Rebekah thought, his melancholy was not abating.

His sadness was always the worst on nights like tonight, when the swollen moon seemed to mock him. It was why Elijah and Rebekah always found something to do, some place to go, leaving her to handle Niklaus and his mercurial moods. She suggested they walk near the edge of the forest to simply get out of the house, but Niklaus did not seem to be lightening at all.

As they lied on a hill, staring up into the black sky, Niklaus confessed, “It is so difficult to breathe on these nights.”

“Why?”

“I feel it in me, the wolf. It is inside me, screaming to be released, and I know there is no way it can be, and I _hate_ it. You do not understand what it feels like, Lex. It is...It is torture.”

“Explain it,” she requested softly. When Niklaus simply stared at her, she added, “Please.”

Sitting up, obviously struggling to find the right words, he finally settled on, “It is like my body is on fire, as if everything inside of me wants to explode and it is only my skin keeping me together. Every instinct inside of me is screaming to run through the woods, to feel the elements against me, and I cannot, and it devastates me, Lex. I _need_ to transform; it is in my blood.”

When she got to her feet, Niklaus looked at her in confusion which quickly became disbelief as she quickly shed her clothing, shaking out her hair until it fell like a curtain around her nude body.

“What are you - “

“I am being a wolf,” she announced as she began to walk backwards towards the treeline. “You best hurry, Nik. You do not want me to be a better one than you.”

The moment she heard Niklaus's rushing footsteps, Alexandra took off, running through the woods as fast as she could, rushing up trees and leaping back to the forest floor. When she felt someone pounce upon her back, Alexandra moved quickly, flinging Niklaus to the ground with a giggle before rushing off again. Once upon a time they had played a similar game with their older brothers, rushing around the grounds of their family's estate, and, just as she had always been able to, Alexandra could sense Niklaus before he was actually there.

Supernatural or not, monsters or not, Alexandra always felt as if Niklaus was simply an extension of herself.

She caught him near the edge of a pond, tackling him to the ground from above, slamming his body face first into the dew-coated grass; Niklaus grunted, attempting to shake her off, but Alexandra held fast, playfully digging blunt teeth into his shoulder, her tongue tasting the salt of his skin.

“Admit I am better,” she ordered, digging her teeth more firmly into his flesh when he stubbornly shook his head. “Admit I am better or I shall tell everyone how I bested you.”

“I will not!” Niklaus laughed, sounding very much as he had when he was human. “You were simply lucky.”

“Lucky?” Digging her knee into the small of his back, tugging his ear with her teeth, Alexandra pronounced, “No matter what you say, we both know I am older and that means stronger, and _you_ could not beat me on your very best day.”

Flopping onto her back, Alexandra chuckled as Niklaus rolled onto his side, rubbing the sting left behind by her teeth. With his blond curls tumbling across his forehead, the flush of the hunt still high on his dirt-smudged cheeks, Niklaus looked so unbelievably _human_ , it was almost enough for Alexandra to fool herself into believing the past 300 years hadn't happened.

He reached over, plucking a piece of leaf from her hair. “Thank you for this.”

“Just because we're monsters doesn't mean we can't have fun, Nik.”

The press of Nik's mouth against hers did not startle Alexandra; they had always been affectionate, Alexandra especially. But the brush of his tongue across her lower lip made Alexandra jerk back, inhaling sharply as she shook her head.

“Nik...”

“We're monsters, Lexi,” he reminded her, his lips featherlight as they slid down her throat. “Let's be monstrous.”

Of the multitude of sins Alexandra committed over the past three centuries, she wasn't sure if having sex with Niklaus was the worst or the least, but, as she pulled away again, the look of utter devastation on her brother's face answered the question for her.

She never wanted to contribute to Niklaus's sadness, and it was not as if she _didn't_ want him.

Decision made, Alexandra surged forward, brutally capturing his mouth as she pushed him onto his back; she had been damned for three centuries and would continue to be so for dozens more, and the bond she shared with Niklaus was deeper than any other in her unnaturally long life.

His grip was bruising as he tried to align their hips, and Alexandra forced his hands away, pinning him to the ground. Niklaus reared up, flipping their positions even as he caught her lower lip between his teeth, moaning as his dick slid against her wetness, prompting Alexandra to cant her hips in a request for friction. He growled at her movement, trying to keep her in place so he could enter her, but Alexandra did not want to be taken, did not want a rough coupling with Niklaus overpowering her.

“God damn it, Lexi!” he spat as she reversed their positions suddenly, and Niklaus gasped as she slapped his face, squeezing his cheeks to force him to look at her.

“I am not some human whore, so stop treating me like one.” Releasing his face, her voice softening, she kissed him gently on the mouth before brushing her lips against his reddened cheek. “If you cannot play nice, I do not want to play.”

Chastened, he lifted his hand, his thumb tracing her full bottom lip, lifting his torso so he could reach her. This kiss lacked the desperation and neediness of the others; this was almost... _romantic_ , and Alexandra could not help the roll of instinctual disgust her body gave at thinking such a thing. She slipped her tongue into Nik's mouth, whimpering as he sat up fully, palming her breast carefully, thumb strumming her nipple. His other hand slid down her stomach, gently sifting through her curls, his fingers sliding against her slick flesh. Alexandra gasped as he pushed two fingers into her body, Nik smiling against the line of her jaw.

“Is that better?” he murmured, sliding his fingers into her hair, drawing her down for another kiss. His voice sobering, he implored, “Swear you will not hate me for this, Lexi. I could not bear - “

“There is nothing you could ever do to make me hate you,” she quickly assured him, swiveling her hips to follow the rhythm of his fingers.

When Alexandra thinks of all the things she has been wrong about and all the promises she made through her unnaturally long life, it is the one she made to Niklaus on that cool autumn night which haunts her.

* * *

The night everything changed with Elijah, all Niklaus wanted was to make his brother happy. He did not mean to start a war with his brother; even in the aftermath of Katerina's defection, cursing him to another 500 years trapped between two worlds, Niklaus did not truly blame Elijah. There was no one - _no one_ \- more loyal than his big brother, and he believed with everything he was that Elijah played no part in Katerina's escape. Elijah had loved Charlotte's doppelganger, and, while it certainly enraged the part of him which could look at Katerina and see his dead wife, he had not truly faulted Elijah for it. It was actually comforting to know there was something so shamefully human still alive in Elijah.

They were in Spain when their brother Isaac came across them. It would have been a happy coincidence for any other family; they were at a celebration being held by the royal family, Rebekah and Alexandra in their finest gowns, he and Elijah using their very best charm upon some of the prettier ladies, when he heard Rebekah sigh Isaac's name. They all turned to see Isaac standing there, surprise on his familiar face; he had the same dark hair and eyes as Elijah, though a neatly kept beard now covered his face. As a child, Niklaus always took comfort in Isaac's presence; whereas Elijah always behaved as if he was another father, Joshua acted as if he had something to prove, and Seth simply ignored them all, Isaac was infinitely patient with a biting sense of humor. Before the curse, he was a doctor; he had once set Niklaus's broken arm after falling from a tree, lying to their father as to how the injury occurred to keep Niklaus from trouble.

Isaac's refusal to stand with him cut far deeper than his other brothers' denials; he expected more of Isaac.

He felt himself recoil as Rebekah forgot herself, flinging her arms around Isaac, crushing him to her; he saw Alexandra's eyes flit towards him to gauge his reaction, but Elijah remained stoic, perfectly still.

He hated how he could never read Elijah.

They excused themselves, and Niklaus felt bitterness rising so sharply, he could taste it. Lexi slipped her hand into his, squeezing it in support, and, for a moment, the feeling abated; for as long as he could remember, Lexi had the uncanny ability to calm him. But the sight of Rebekah fawning over Isaac, asking a litany of questions about Joshua, Seth, and their mother, reminding him of everyone who chose to pick Michael over him, could not drown the feelings inside of him.

“Mother misses all of you,” Isaac stated, his eyes locking with Niklaus's. “It is her fondest wish to have us all reunited.”

“And we all know that isn't possible,” Niklaus countered.

“We heard about the doppelganger, about what happened. There will be no more Petrovas thanks to you and Rebekah. This silly feud - “

“It is not silly,” Alexandra interrupted, still her little brother's voice, “and it was not we who forced this separation. We will still find a way to break the curse, to restore what those damned witches stole from Nik.”

Isaac sighed before looking to Niklaus imploringly. “I miss you, brother. All of us...Even Father misses you. It does not need to be this way, not anymore.”

“Choices were made, Isaac,” Elijah intoned, surprising Niklaus with the depth of his solemnity. “It was not Niklaus who forced us to choose sides, and, if Father wants back, he can come himself. Sending you as a messenger, it is beneath you and it is certainly beneath us.”

Irritation flickered across Isaac's face. “You are not royalty, Eli.”

“No but we will also not be called back to court as peasants.” Elijah exhaled sharply before declaring, “I must take my leave. Isaac, it was good to see you.”

When Niklaus found Elijah hour later, his brother was seated in the den drinking directly from a bottle of wine. It was such an unusual sight, Niklaus was genuinely surprised as he joined him.

“Where are our sisters?”

He shrugged. “One of the princesses was seeking companionship. She invited both of them to remain at court for the night. If I had known you were going to drink yourself towards oblivion, I would have come sooner.”

Elijah took a long swig from the bottle before declaring, “I cannot believe he would do this.”

“Who, Isaac? I admit, his arrival is not something I embrace but - “

“No, Michael,” Elijah corrected, face darkening. “How dare he send Isaac to bring us home like errant children when he sent us away? How dare he act as if we behaved irrationally when he cast you out and expected us to turn our backs?”

Niklaus could not help but feel a rush of warmth at Elijah's indignation to their father's treatment of him. “We do not have to go back.”

“Of course we will not go back, but I cannot believe Isaac would do this. I always thought when Michael sent someone, it would be Seth or maybe Joshua. I never thought Isaac would stand against us this way.”

“It bothers you that badly?”

Elijah lifted his gaze, and Niklaus saw just how wrecked his brother appeared. “When we were children, Isaac and I were as close as you and Alexandra. There was no one in the world who knew me better. The man who came to us today...I did not know him and he did not know me.” A single tear tracking down his face, Elijah declared, “My brother has become a stranger, and I am just as strange to him. This is not the eternity I want.”

He was not the hero of the story; that was not his role to fill. But Niklaus had never seen Elijah so disheartened and he just wanted to make it better.

It wasn't difficult to kill Isaac. His sweet, peace-loving brother never saw the dagger, never had any indication it was to be his last night on earth. By the time Isaac connected the pain in his chest to what was happening, his skin was already ashen, his body already crumpling. The last word Isaac ever said was Niklaus's name, and Niklaus winced at the hand which attempted to grasp his shirt front.

“I am sorry, brother,” he whispered as he gently laid Isaac on the ground. “You should have chosen better.”

A little compulsion of the servants allowed Niklaus to transport Isaac's body to a freshly made coffin to be stored away. When he returned to his home with the bracelet Isaac's daughter made him over 500 years earlier, Elijah instantly knew what had happened.

“There is no way our brother would ever have been parted with that,” Elijah stated, horror dawning on his face. “Isaac would die before he ever let anyone take Leah's bracelet from his wrist.”

“Elijah - “

“What have you done, Niklaus? What did you do to our brother?”

“What had to be done.” Extending the bracelet towards Elijah, Niklaus offered, “I made sure he would never hurt you again, would never hurt any of us again.”

“What did you do?!” Elijah roared, grasping Niklaus by the collar and slamming against the wall so hard, the entire building seemed to shake.

He shoved at Elijah, forcing him away. “I sent a message to our father!”

Elijah shook his head in disbelief, his face a plethora of every emotion Niklaus recognized. “Where is his body? Where did you put him?”

“Buried him at sea,” Niklaus lied, rejection singing his heart. “Perhaps if you hold your breath long enough and the tides are in your favor, you may find a scrap of his clothing.”

“You're a monster.”

Steeling his resolve, Niklaus warned, “Careful, Elijah. I have other daggers.”

“How could you? Isaac...Father will come now. He will come with the forces of Heaven and Hell to punish you, to punish _us_. Isaac did not deserve to die!” Pointing at his brother, Elijah pronounced, “You will regret this.”

“I have already forgotten it.”

Of all the lies Niklaus has told over the centuries, of all the falsehoods he convinced himself to be true, it is the one he told Elijah that balmy summer night which haunts him.

* * *

The night Rebekah knew she could no longer depend on Alexandra, all she had wanted was to borrow a gown. Niklaus still insisted upon selecting Rebekah's gowns as if she was a child, but Alexandra was given free reign to bring home anything she wanted; every whim Lex had was fulfilled, and Rebekah refused to go to a dinner party in the frilly pink number Niklaus brought home a few days earlier.

As Rebekah entered Alexandra's room, she froze at the sight of her sister carefully packing her few important possessions into a bag. Rebekah felt her blood turn to ice in her veins as Lex turned around, her dark eyes - _Elijah's_ eyes, their _mother's_ eyes – fixing her in place.

“He will kill you,” Rebekah finally said, her voice hoarse with fear.

Alexandra shook her head, her long ringlets falling across her cheekbones. “He will not.”

“He killed our brothers. He killed _Mother_. And if he ever gets the chance, he will kill Elijah and Father. What makes you believe you are so special, he will not plant a dagger in your heart just as easily?”

“Because _I_ could never kill _him_.”

“In case you haven't been paying attention, Lex, Nik isn't playing by the same rules as the rest of us.” Tears filling her eyes, Rebekah stepped closer, dropping the volume of her voice despite the fact Niklaus was miles away in town. “I cannot watch another member of our family be daggered. I _cannot_.”

“Then come with me.”

“What?”

“You do not like the lives we are living anymore than I do. We can both go, flee, and start lives of our own. We can be anyone we choose to be, Bex. It's _our_ choice.”

Rebekah dreamt of a time when she was not ruled by Niklaus's capricious moods, when she could go where she wanted with who she wanted without ever having to ask permission. It was the only thing in the world she truly wanted, and Lex knew that. But Bex _didn't_ know her sister felt the same way. Alexandra had _always_ been Niklaus's favorite, even when they were human, and hers was the only loyalty Nik believed in absolutely.

“You cannot do this,” Rebekah finally declared. “He _will_ kill you, Lexi, and he will kill me for knowing about it.”

“You overestimate our brother's unkindness.”

“And you underestimate his hatred.” Folding her arms across her chest, Rebekah pointed out, “Half of our family is dead by Nik's hand, including our mother. He nearly killed Elijah when he left, and we both know the moment the opportunity presents itself, Eli will be in a box beside our other brothers. Do you honestly want to tempt his rage?”

“If the alternative to dying, is living in our gilded cage, then, yes, Bex, I would rather have a dagger in my chest.” Wiping at an errant tear, Alexandra stressed, “You do not understand what it is like for me, what I have to be. If I continue to bear this responsibility, I will be crushed beneath it.”

Suddenly furious, Rebekah growled, “What right do you have to feel trapped? He gives you _everything_! You are the only person in the world Niklaus loves!”

“But he is not the only person _I_ love, and I will not be party to more deaths in search of a cause I no longer believe in.” Tears streaking her cheeks now, she confessed, “I cannot sleep without seeing our brothers' faces, without hearing our mother's voice. I just want to go back.”

“Back?” Rebekah echoed. “There is no _back_ , Alexandra! It's been 800 years!”

“And in another 800, perhaps my opinions will change but not tonight.” Definitively, Alexandra proclaimed, “I will be free of our brother tomorrow morning or I will die trying, but blind subservience is no longer an option for me.”

“And what becomes of me?” Rebekah asked in a small voice.

Alexandra move forward, cupping Rebekah's face in her hands. “Come with me, Bex. He will be the death of you.”

“I am not his favorite, Lexi. He _will_ kill me.” Pulling away, she shook her head. “If you go, you go alone. I am not ending up in a box for a plan which will not work anyway.”

“You are making a mistake.”

Rebekah scoffed. “No, I made a mistake in thinking you or Elijah were worth any of the promises you ever made me. I may be in a gilded cage, Alexandra, but _you_ , you are going to be more trapped by your defection than you ever were by his side.” Glaring at her sister, she spat, “You think I am so stupid, but I know you far better than you believe I do. And I know with every fiber of my being, you do not know how to live without Nik. You can go ten thousand kilometers, go to the very ends of the earth, but he will never leave your mind because, while he is not the _only_ person you love, he has always been the only person you love _more_ than everyone else.” Grabbing the emerald gown she had originally entered the room to borrow, Rebekah declared, “I do not know why you are even bothering to run. You and Niklaus, you are the same terrible monsters; at least he is honest about it.”

Of all the last words Rebekah said through the centuries, all the parting shots designed to sting the recipient, it is the unkind accusation she hurled at Alexandra which haunts her.

* * *

Elijah saw his father for the first time in 800 years the year Hitler came to power in Germany. Every year since leaving Niklaus, Elijah returned to the grounds which once held his childhood home; the building was different now, updated to keep with the times, but he still came, still laid four roses on the property's edge in remembrance of his mother, of his brothers.

“You'll need another,” a voice informed him, causing Elijah to stiffen in familiarity. He turned and saw his father, a single rose in his hand. “He killed Rebekah.”

Elijah closed his eyes, trying to push away the pain of the statement, failing miserably. When he trusted his voice, he asked, “How long ago?”

“A few years. Only a matter of time, I suppose, but...”

“But it was Rebekah,” Elijah finished.

“He's gone underground, trusting no one,” Michael volunteered. “I have not been able to find him since Chicago, since Rebekah's...disappearance.”

“And you want me to help you find him,” Elijah interpreted.

“They were our _family_ , Elijah.”

Whirling on Michael, Elijah grasped him by his coat, filled with a rage so volatile Elijah did not recognize it. “You think I do not know that? You think it does not fill every waking moment of my life?” Pushing him away, Elijah accused, “None of this would have happened if _you_ hadn't forced us to choose. Do not wrap yourself up in the sanctity of family when you pushed us away.”

“Niklaus is not my son.”

“And neither am I.” Shaking his head angrily, shoving his hands deep within the pockets of his coat, Elijah snapped, “When I kill Niklaus, I will not do it by your side. You do not deserve vengeance.”

Vengeance was all Elijah had to sustain him.

It is _still_ all which sustains him.

* * *

Lexi saw her father for the first time in 400 years during the Summer of Love. She and Stefan were in Haight-Ashbury, dancing in the streets, LSD in their veins when she saw her father leaning against a car, a disapproving scowl on his face. Her body was so full of psychoactive drugs, she was certain she was hallucinating; the night before, she was certain she was making love to Niklaus only to wake up to a man who bore absolutely no resemblance to her brother but _did_ have the most disgusting beard she had seen outside of the Middle Ages.

“What are you looking at?” Stefan asked as he draped a necklace of flowers around her neck, smiling into the thick braids she wove her hair into earlier.

Lexi didn't answer, her eyes still focused on what she was almost convinced was an apparition of the man who spent centuries hunting her. And then Stefan pointed to the man and said, “Do you know him?”

“You see him?”

Stefan looked at her strangely. “Of course I can see him. Lex, are you - “

Cupping his face, using the compulsion she seldom used, Lexi intoned, “You're tired. You're going to go back to the house, go to sleep, and, when you wake up tomorrow morning, you will have no memory of seeing that man. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Stefan automatically replied.

Lexi hugged him tightly, tears stinging her eyes at the idea that this could be goodbye. As soon as Stefan was out of sight, she took a deep breath and then approached her father, trying to will her hands to stop shaking. The last time she saw Michael, he was setting fire to a house they were staying in; with Niklaus's murder of their mother, Michael kicked into overdrive, and Lexi could still feel the sting of flames against her skin.

“You have always kept the poorest company,” Michael observed as she stepped in front of him. “And what _are_ you wearing?”

Despite herself, Lexi self-consciously looked down at the tiny shorts and nearly sheer tank top at which he was sneering. When combined with her waist length braids and the flowers Stefan gave her, she looked like every other hippie in San Francisco dancing in the moonlight.

“You are of noble blood, Alexandra, and you are behaving like a rutting animal.”

She flinched at both the criticism and the sound of her given name. “That is not what I am called anymore.”

“No, you are _Lexi_ now.” Face darkening, he asked, “How do you live your life hearing everyone call you by Niklaus's name for you?”

“It is _my_ name,” she argued fiercely. “I am not Alexandra. I'm Alexia Branson; I've been Alexia since 1821, and that's who I want to stay. So if you're going to kill me - “

“I am not going to kill you.” He reached out, touching one of the flowers woven into her hair. “Your mother wore flowers in her hair when we wed. You look so much like her.”

Tears unexpectedly flooding her eyes, she murmured, “I had nothing to do with her death. I swear, if I had known what Nik planned, I would have stopped him.”

“Like you stopped him with Isaac? And Joshua? And Seth?”

She looked down, ashamed. There was no way she could argue it was a matter of survival; Isaac's murder was out of line, but Joshua and Seth came for revenge. If Niklaus hadn't killed them, they would have killed him, killed her and Rebekah for spite. It was kill or be killed then.

But Esther...There were many things she had never agreed with her mother upon, including her passive acceptance of Niklaus's treatment at Michael's hand, but the day Nik put the dagger in her heart was the day Lexi knew it was time to leave.

“He killed Rebekah, you know.”

She gasped. “What? When?”

“1921, shortly before you showed up in Chicago to reform your playmate.” Eyes narrowing, he stated, “He needs to be stopped.”

“Stopped from what? No one has seen hide nor hair of him since the twenties. He is a story vampires tell each other, the boogeyman.”

“Do you honestly think he won't try to kill Elijah, that he won't come for _you_?”

“He won't.”

“And how do you know that?” Michael challenged.

“Because he loves me as I love him.”

Michael scoffed. “Niklaus cannot love.”

This time Lexi scoffed, distaste written all over her face. “You do not know him. You _never_ knew him. And if you came here to recruit me to help you kill him, you came to the wrong child. Find Elijah - “

“Elijah wants no part in this; he wants solitary vengeance. But you - “

Shoving her father into the parked car, startling herself with the violence of her reaction, she shouted, “I will _never_ help you kill him! I do not kill the people I love, and I will not help you destroy him. No matter what he has done, Nik is not beyond hope.”

Hope was all Lexi had to sustain her.

It is _still_ all which sustains her.

* * *

Niklaus saw Alexandra for the first time in 200 years on what would have been his 1000th birthday. He had spent the past 90 years in near solitude, surrounding himself only with witches, staying as far underground as he could possibly get; as Rebekah proved, there was no one on earth he could trust, no one who had his back absolutely.

But even the most feared vampire in the world became lonely, and all Nik wanted was to see his big sister.

Unlike Elijah, she never hid. His last, remaining brother kept a very low profile, taking almost as much care as Niklaus to keep himself protected; the last Niklaus heard of anyone even glimpsing Elijah, he was in New Zealand, literally a world away from Niklaus. But Alexandra...she changed her name, hid the fact she was a member of the Original family, but she didn't disguise her life. From the moment his Lexi left that plantation in Georgia, Niklaus had always known exactly where she was.

She never did leave Georgia. Niklaus found the condo she kept in Atlanta easily; the name on the lease was Alexia Branson, her pseudonym of choice, but Lee Quinn was also named on the mailbox. Whenever he asked around about Lexi, people almost always mentioned her boyfriend, a soldier she picked up during World War Two; it made him so much angrier than anything else. Lexi was supposed to be as lost without him as he was without her; she was _not_ supposed to become the happy, carefree lover of another man.

He found scotch in her kitchen, pouring himself three fingers before stretching out on the couch, his feet propped up on the coffee table. There were dozens of photographs around the apartment, all depicting Lexi and her various adventures with multiple friends. Niklaus could not help but smile at a shot of Lexi with Stefan, both in the ridiculous rocker garb of the 80s, grinning madly. He missed Stefan; he was everything Niklaus ever wanted in a brother, never asked him to be anything other than what he was. He kept tabs on Stefan as well, knew Lexi was determined to keep him on a straight and narrow path; his hope is, when Lexi eventually returns to his side, Stefan will come as well.

They could rule the world, the three of them.

When Lexi came through the door with Lee, she immediately froze at the sight of him, pushing Lee behind her. Niklaus smiled at the gesture, at the fierce protectiveness in her stance; it was so purely _Lexi_ and he missed that.

“Hello, sister.”

“Niklaus...”

He got to his feet, smirking as he approached them. “You must be Alexandra's lover. How delightfully...mediocre.” As indignation filled Lee's face, he compelled, “You're going to leave now. Come back tomorrow evening and forget you ever saw me.”

Lexi shoved at his shoulders before Lee was even out the door. “You have _no right_ \- “

Niklaus slammed her hard against front door, drawing a cry of pain as the doorknob dug into her lower back. “I suggest you choose your words carefully.”

Her boot in his solar plexus caught him off-guard, sending him stumbling backwards into the kitchen table, shattering a wooden chair. He grunted as Lexi landed hard on his chest, shoving a chair leg through his rib cage.

“I am not Bex,” she growled, twisting the chair leg. “If you want to kill me, you're going to work for it.”

He flipped her onto her back, jerking the chair leg from his body and using it to strike her so hard against her cheek, it split the skin, drawing blood. “If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead.”

Lexi grabbed his shirt front, tearing the material as she jerked him down, drawing her nails across his face, her nails ripping open the flesh. He hissed, rearing back to strike her, grasping a handful of her long hair to hold her in place. Lexi planted her feet, pitching her hips upward to unseat him, and she reversed their positions as easily as she had when they were children.

Anger and embarrassment flooded his body as Lexi caught his wrists, pinning him to the floor, her blood dripping down onto his battered body. Both of their breathing was fast from exertion, and Niklaus wasn't sure if he wanted to kiss her or kill her.

Finally he revealed, “I missed you.”

Her mouth tasted of iron and the past, and Niklaus was certain nothing in the world tasted better than Lexi.

Lexi ripped open his jeans, tightly fisting his cock; her grip was just rough enough to seem like a threat, and it made him throb in her palm. He slid his hands up her thighs, finding the flimsy scrap of fabric covering the hot, wet heat he needed to bury himself deep inside. As he easily snapped the strings of the thong, Lexi immediately impaled herself, crying out, and Niklaus felt his eyes roll back in his head; he had been dreaming of this for centuries.

“Fucking love thongs,” he groaned as Lexi began to ride him in earnest, paying no mind to the painful, gaping wound in his side. “Petticoats were such a bitch to get under.”

Lexi twisted his nipple brutally, her fangs sinking briefly into his full bottom lip before ordering, “You need to shut up right now.”

It was over in a matter of minutes. The moment he worried her nipple with blunt teeth, his thumb battering her clit with enough roughness to skirt the edge of pain, Lexi came, spasming so tightly around him, Niklaus could not stop himself from coming. He knew he was gasping her name like a schoolboy, but there was no way he could stop himself, not when he was certain his brain was coming out his dick.

As Lexi climbed off of him, collapsing on her back, she reached up, pulling a dish towel off of the oven door and pressing it against his ribs.

“Stop bleeding on my floor or I'll lose my deposit.”

Niklaus chuckled even as he obeyed. For a moment they lied in silence, the destroyed kitchen furniture around them, when Lexi softly sighed, “Happy birthday, Nik.”

“You remembered.”

“Of course I remembered. You never forget family.”

The quest for family was all which sustained Niklaus.

It is _still_ all which sustains him.

* * *

Rebekah saw Niklaus for the first time in 90 years when she put Elijah's dagger in his heart. She knew it wouldn't kill him; his Hybrid bullshit made his death a little more complex than the rest of them. But it would hurt for his heart to be shredded the same way hers had been, and that was all which mattered to Rebekah right now.

She wasn't sure about her brothers, but death had not been restful for Rebekah. For ninety years she was haunted by dreams of all which could never be and plagued by nightmares of what _had_. For every sweet dream about spending time with Charlotte or dancing at a party, there was the memory of Niklaus slipping into her bed, whispering Lex's name as he took what Bex did not want to offer; for every pleasant memory of one brother, there was a recollection of Niklaus keeping her in line, Niklaus making her cry, Niklaus punishing her for not being Alexandra and then punishing her for being _too_ much like her.

Being dead with Niklaus in her head was even worse than being alive with Niklaus beside her because death allowed no respite.

As Niklaus tried to rationalize with her, as he offered up Stefan as a gesture of good faith, as he demanded Charlotte's necklace, all Rebekah could think of was the five bodies in the nearby coffins. She did not know how long it would take for them to wake, but if they did so while they were still in the warehouse, Rebekah knew any element of surprise would be lost.

While Niklaus raged at the loss of her necklace, Rebekah studied Stefan, who did not look at all like the man she felt like she saw only moments earlier. There was a heavy sadness to him now, and she wondered what her brother did to take the carefree, beautiful Stefan she loved into the creature before her.

Niklaus always ruined _everything._

The whole world was different now. As they walked to Niklaus's apartment, Rebekah could not get over how different the cars were, how many _lights_ ; she was used to progress, had seen entire civilizations rise and fall, but this was different because she had not been there to adapt. The men all looked like street urchins, the women like prostitutes; she looked down at her dress, once the height of fashion, and suddenly felt obsolete.

“What is that?” Rebekah asked Stefan as Niklaus removed one of the devices she found in the pocket of the man in the warehouse from his pocket and began to speak into it.

“It's a cell phone.”

“A phone? But where are the wires?”

Stefan smiled indulgently. “We don't need them anymore. Everything's wireless.” His face and voice softened as he offered, “You'll learn.”

She nodded crisply, glaring at Niklaus as he shouted into his phone. As they crossed the threshold of the apartment, Rebekah removed her heels, shimmying out of her ruined dress. She saw Stefan suppress a smile and, suddenly furious, she snapped, “What?!”

Stefan held up his hands in forfeit. “Nothing. I just...It's been a long time since I've seen women in undergarments like that. They're much smaller now.”

Rebekah glanced down at what, to her mind, was the most stylish lingerie the times had to offer. Except the times were not the times anymore, thanks to Niklaus.

“Do showers still work the same way?”

Stefan nodded.

“You should come with me anyway in case I have questions.”

Rebekah saw a flicker of some indefinable emotion in Stefan's eyes, but he hid it so quickly, she knew he must have learned to conceal what he was actually feeling from Niklaus. But Stefan came forward, offering a pale imitation of the suggestive smile she loved so much, and Rebekah was not going to push him away, not when he was the only good thing in her life.

He adjusted the water for her as she stripped down to her skin; when her fingers popped the first button on his shirt, Stefan seemed to wince before quickly hurrying to help her. As she pushed his jeans over his narrow hips, Rebekah could not help but trail her fingers over the hard muscles of his stomach, following the defined line of his hip down to his cock, soft and unresponsive.

“Do you want this even a little?” she murmured almost inaudibly against his ear.

He shook his head minutely. “I'm sorry.”

She pulled him beneath the spray, closing the glass door, letting the hot water rush over her skin. Stefan nudged her out of the way, raising his face to the spray, and Rebekah instantly knew Stefan was not with Niklaus by choice, that he was as much a hostage as she was in her brother's twisted game.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Rebekah pulled him down to her eye level; straining to hear Niklaus still shouting at whoever he was speaking to, she pressed her mouth directly against the shell of Stefan's ear and whispered, “I woke up my family. They'll come for us.”

Stefan pulled away in surprise, eyes wide with a peculiar mix of gratitude and terror; and then he kissed her desperately, his fingers tangling in her curls. As much as she loved Stefan, she understood ninety years had passed; she knew she was not the woman Stefan loved anymore. But this was not about love, and Rebekah understood needing a connection in the midst of chaos.

He pressed her against the marble, his hands slipping beneath her haunches to lift her off of her feet; _this_ Rebekah remembered, _this_ she dreamt about during her endless sleep.

“You're starting without me,” Niklaus announced as he entered the bathroom, causing the two of them to break apart. Rebekah recognized the look on her brother's face; she knew better than anyone the depths of Niklaus's jealousy and rage.

“Well, you were taking too long,” Rebekah snapped, subtly moving in front of Stefan, trying to spare him the brunt of Niklaus's anger. “I've been dead for ninety years, and you can't stop your temper tantrums for five minutes long enough to fuck me? Is it our fault you can't get the job done?”

Niklaus smirked as he shed his clothing, stepping into the shower stall. When he grasped her hips tightly, jerking her to him with enough force to nearly knock her over, Rebekah knew this was not going to be kind; there would be no apology in Niklaus's actions tonight. No, tonight would be a reminder of exactly who she belonged to and how she would never escape.

“What do you want?” Niklaus asked mockingly.

“Vengeance,” she retorted, wincing as he spun her around, pushing her face first into the shower wall, her breasts mashed against the marble.

It hurt when he entered her in one forceful stroke, pressing her so hard against the wall Rebekah felt her nose crunch beneath it. As the blood began to gush, Rebekah caught Stefan's horrified expression out of the corner of her eye and she minutely shook her head, silently ordering him to be strong.

The quest for vengeance was all which sustained Rebekah for ninety years of nothingness.

It is _still_ all which sustains her.

* * *

When Elijah wakes up, it takes a moment for him to orient himself. He pushes open the coffin, stumbling as he climbs out; he does not know how long he has been dead, but he surmises it has not been long as hunger is not screaming in his gut. When he sees the other coffins, he immediately flips open the lids, stunned to find his mother and brothers, all with daggers resting on their chests, finally free of their hearts.

It took little effort to compel a half-dozen people to enter the warehouse, to wait to be drained. Once the blood was in his system, Elijah could feel his strength returning, and it is then he sees the engraving on the inside lid of his coffin.

 **Find Lexi. Save me. Kill Nik. Love, Bex.**

Elijah laughs. If Rebekah is who Niklaus chose to awaken, he is even stupider than Elijah gave him credit for; anyone with half of a lick of sense knew Rebekah hated him more than anyone, forever their slighted little sister.

He has not seen Lexi in almost 500 years, not since the fight with Niklaus, not since she threw herself upon Niklaus in order to keep him from daggering Elijah then. A few times he had considered looking for her, but he always suspected she, of all of them, was most able to live a relatively normal life. Elijah had not wanted to disrupt whatever life Alexandra was able to build for herself.

To find Alexandra, he will need a witch.

* **

When Lexi enters her Brooklyn brownstone, the last thing she expects to find is her entire family in her living room. She drops the bags in her arms, literally stunned by the sight of her mother rising from her couch, looking just as beautiful and glamorous as she had always had; Lexi cannot help but gasp as Esther wraps her arms around her, squeezing her tightly.

“Oh, Alexandra...You look so grown-up.”

She has been twenty-five-years-old for a thousand years, but the compliment makes her eyes water nonetheless.

“How?” is all she can make her voice ask. She knows more languages than most people even know _exist_ , speaks dialects linguists have thought were lost centuries ago, but suddenly Lexi can barely form her own name.

“Niklaus woke Rebekah,” Seth volunteers.

Lexi smirks despite herself. “Stupid.”

Elijah inclines his head in agreement. “She left me instructions, the first of which is to find you.”

Suddenly comprehending their presence, Lexi remembers how to speak enough to declare, “I won't help you kill him.”

“Alexandra - “

“ _No_ ,” she cuts in, her glare silencing her mother. “I'm happy you're all alive, but I'm not helping you kill him. If that's why you're here, if that's what you want, you can leave.”

“He has gone mad with power,” Joshua states. “He is trying to make an army of creatures like himself.”

“Because he feels he has no one!” Running her fingers through her dyed bob, the faux-mahogany curls falling into her eyes, she stressed, “None of you still get it. He's like this because he knows he doesn't fit in anywhere else! Michael made sure of that, and all of you reinforced it! I won't help you kill him.”

“Alexandra,” Esther begins, sadness on her face, “I do not want to see Niklaus dead any more than you do. But he is beyond salvation.”

“I'll never believe that.”

“Then believe this,” Elijah challenges. “He has Stefan.” Stepping closer, he adds, “If you do not want to take part in killing Niklaus, I understand. But Stefan will die if Michael finds him first, and we both know that.”

To save Stefan, she will need to threaten the life of the only person in the world who loves her absolutely.

* * *

When Niklaus, Rebekah, and Stefan enter his home in Los Angeles to find Lexi making Romanian Stuffed Peppers, his very favorite dish, to say he is surprised is an understatement. He has not seen her since his birthday years earlier, and she has never once sought him out in over two hundred years. Instantly he suspects her rapid reintroduction to his life has little to do with him and everything to do with Stefan.

“Lexi?” Stefan gasps, cautious optimism painted all over his face.

Lexi smiles brilliantly from the kitchen, pouring three glasses of wine which she brings to them. “Hey, Stef. You hungry?”

“We just ate,” Niklaus frowns.

Lexi doesn't blink, smiling blandly at his tone, before handing a glass to Rebekah. “Good to see you, Bex.”

“What are you doing here?” he demands, furious. “Have you come to rescue young Stefan? I know it wasn't to just make me dinner.”

“I came to proposition you. I just figured dinner would make you a little nicer.” Returning to the stove, pulling plates out of the cupboard, she asks, “Who wants my specialty?”

“Lexi - “

“Romanian food is just _so_ overrated - “

“Alexandra!” Lexi pauses at his shout, patiently waiting, and he sighs in irritation, feeling very much like the younger brother all over again. “ _Why_ are _you_ here?”

“Because Katerina undaggered our entire family, and they want my help in killing you.”

Niklaus does not often allow himself to feel fear or grief, but it comes upon so quickly, he does not have time to stop it. He tries not to think of his mother, of his brothers; he keeps them safe for the day he planned to revive them, and he certainly hadn't wanted Katerina to make that decision for him.

He is going to kill Katerina anyway; this is just another in a long list of reasons why.

“And you've come to do it?”

Lexi looks at him as if he is mentally deficient. “Of course not. I've come to bargain.”

“The terms?”

“Rebekah leaves, you agree to stop your assault on our family, and everyone, including Michael, will agree to leave you to make your little Hybrid army. Oh, and Stefan gets to go home.”

Niklaus scowls. “Somehow I doubt our brothers give a flying fuck about Stefan.”

“No,” Lexi concedes, “that one is mine.”

He casts a look at Rebekah and Stefan, both of whom look as if they are unsure what is about to happen and what they will do if something _does_. Niklaus does not doubt Stefan will do whatever it takes to try to save Lexi, and Rebekah will do anything to keep Stefan safe; he knows he could kill them both if he truly wanted, but he has no intention of killing Lexi tonight.

“And in exchange?”

“I give you Charlotte's necklace, which you can use to break your curse, and I will be your right-hand man.” Smiling enticingly, she encourages, “Think about it, Nik: you, me, Michael off of our backs...We'd be a family again. And, let's be honest, we're the best part of the family anyway.”

“Thanks, Lex,” Rebekah grouses.

“How noble an offer. How about a counteroffer? You give me Charlotte's necklace, you _and_ Rebekah both stay, and I re-dagger everyone _or_ I'll kill Stefan.”

Lexi smirks, and Niklaus instantly recognizes it as his own expression. “I'm not afraid of you, Nik. And if you kill Stefan, the Bennett witch is going to destroy Charlotte's necklace, making sure you end up trapped like this forever.” Rounding the counter, her voice remarkably even, Lexi declares, “I don't want to see you dead, and we both know that's what's going to happen if you don't agree. I'm trying to save you, Niklaus.”

“Who asked you to save me?”

Niklaus watches as her entire posture changes, as her face folds in sadness. “No one had to ask; that's what family does.”

To get what he needs to feel complete, Niklaus will have to trust Lexi to protect him.

* * *

When Rebekah sees her family for the first time in centuries, she is stunned to realize they are not at all how she remembers them. Her brothers always seemed larger than life, her mother always appeared to be the most beautiful woman Rebekah had ever seen, but now...now they are just people.

As they cross the threshold of Stefan's home, as she glimpses the doppelganger Stefan loves, the collection of people whose lives have been torn apart by Niklaus, Rebekah forces herself not to charge into Elijah's arms, to squeeze him tightly and never let go. She has spent centuries cursing Elijah for his abandonment, for breaking his promise, but seeing his face again, seeing the cautious smile she always associated with safety, all Rebekah can do is cry into his shoulder.

She sees Stefan embracing Charlotte's doppelganger, and she hates the way her heart aches. Stefan catches her eye over the girl's shoulder, and she can see the conflict in his eyes. She knows better than anyone there is no going back once Niklaus has gotten his claws into you; the person you become under Niklaus's tutelage is not the sort of person who can easily slide back into a normal life.

Niklaus remains near the doorway, glaring at their brothers, deliberately keeping his gaze away from their mother; the Bennett witch does not allow her eyes to leave him, and Rebekah hates Alexandra for taking away their chances at vengeance, for making it so Niklaus will never suffer for what he has done.

“I'd like my necklace now,” Niklaus says, leaning against the doorway.

Rebekah watches as the doppelganger reaches up to the undo the clasp. The words come out of her mouth before she can stop them.

“Don't take it off.”

Elijah stiffens beside her as Niklaus's face darkens. “We had a deal. Now, if I don't get my necklace, there's no reason for me to agree to _any_ of the terms.”

Alexandra sighs, “Don't listen to her, Elena. Just - “

“Charlotte said that necklace was for her daughter; it belongs to the Petrovas, not for you and your twisted crusade!”

“Rebekah - “

“Charlotte would not have wanted this.”

“Charlotte has been dead for a thousand years, and I am out of patience,” Niklaus growls, coming off the wall only for Alexandra to push him back against it with enough force to rattle the pictures on the wall.

“Elena,” her sister says, voice full of purpose, “I need you to give me the necklace now.”

Rebekah watches as the girl obeys, pressing it into Alexandra's palm with a shaking hand. Immediately she passes it to Niklaus, who spares one last glance for them all before strutting out of the boardinghouse as if he did not have a care in the world.

Alexandra stalks over to her, surprising Rebekah by the strength of her hug. She hugs them all, including Stefan whom she playfully orders to behave himself, before following Niklaus out the door. Rebekah knows all Niklaus has ever wanted is to have Alexandra all to himself, to have someone he trusts implicitly at his side, and Rebekah does not think it is really that much of a sacrifice for her sister to provide him with that. After all, if she does not, Rebekah knows Niklaus will return to finish what he started.

To have the life she wants to live, Rebekah must trust her sister to keep her brother satisfied.

* * *

It is 200 years before Elijah sees Niklaus again. He is literally standing on a street corner when he looks up and sees Niklaus on the opposite corner. They stare at each other for a moment before Elijah nods in greeting. Niklaus is still for a moment before doing the same, inclining his head slightly before heading in the opposite direction.

It is not an apology, and Elijah does not forgive him.

But it is a start.

* * *

It is 300 years before Lexi sees Rebekah again. She is at a party, flirting with a man she knows Niklaus will not mind sharing, when she senses someone familiar nearby. When she turns, there is Rebekah with Stefan, both dressed in their finery, Rebekah laughing at something Stefan is saying. Every instinct inside of Lexi tells her to go to them, to wrap her arms around Stefan and press a kiss to Rebekah's cheek. Both of them see Lexi at the same time, and for a long beat, all they do is stare at each other.

And then Stefan moves forward, and Lexi embraces him, and Rebekah cautiously accepts a hug.

It is not an apology, and Lexi knows Rebekah does not forgive her.

But it is a start.

* * *

It is 450 years before Niklaus sees Rebekah again. He is in wolf form, rushing through the woods in pursuit of game, when Rebekah suddenly pops into focus, downing the stag he had been pursuing. Niklaus watches as she drains the animal, confused as to her rationale, and, when she spots him, Rebekah freezes, knowing the dangers of crossing a werewolf. Niklaus transform back to himself easily, and Rebekah simply stares, her body still tense, her face distrusting. They stare at each other for a few moments before Niklaus shifts back into wolf form, padding towards her, nudging her knee with his head before continuing on.

It is not an apology, and Niklaus understands Rebekah will likely never forgive him.

But it is a start.

* * *

It is the 2000th anniversary of their turning before Rebekah sees her family fully reunited. She is not generally a nostalgic person, but her dreams have been full of Charlotte and her former life; she broaches the topic with Stefan, and he suggests they go home. When they reach the field which once held the Petrova farm, Rebekah is stunned to see Elijah and Elena already there. Within a few hours, her parents, Joshua, Isaac, and Seth all return. As the moon begins to crest, Niklaus and Alexandra enter the clearing, and Rebekah feels something ineffable twisting inside of her.

No one says anything as Niklaus sets flowers down upon the ground, his sole acknowledgment of the wife he lost; when he approaches Elena, Rebekah feels Elijah and Stefan both tense. When he presses Charlotte's necklace into Elena's hand, tears begin to roll down Rebekah's cheeks as she glimpses the shadow of the brother she once knew.

It is not an apology, and Rebekah knows things will never be the way they once were.

But it is a start.


End file.
